The Times published an opinion piece yesterday written by Robbie Marsland, Director of the League Against Cruel Sports (Scotland) and a founder member of REVIVE, the coalition for grouse moor reform:
As we approach the beginning of another controversial grouse shooting season, Scotland’s Wildlife Management and Muirburn Act will, for the first time, require the licensing of shooting estates. All shooting estates are expected to be granted these licenses with ease. The question is, which will be the first to lose its licence?
Licensing was introduced by the Scottish government this year after decades of failure by the shooting industry to end the illegal killing of birds of prey on, and around, grouse moors. The underlying reason for that failure is very simple. Birds of prey, such as hen harriers and golden eagles — both specially protected species — include grouse in their diets. But grouse are valuable. One way to value a grouse moor is by the size of its “game bag”, the number of grouse that can be shot each year.
A report to the Scottish government from the independent Grouse Moor Management Group five years ago said that the capital value of an estate could be increased by £5,000 for every pair of grouse shot on that estate. So, even if a hen harrier or a golden eagle were to include only ten or twenty grouse in their diet, there’s quite the financial incentive to remove the “problem”.
The new act also tackles moorland management activities that are potentially environmentally unsustainable. Since 2019, REVIVE, a unique coalition of environmental, animal welfare and social justice organisations, has described these activities as “the circle of destruction” surrounding Scotland’s grouse moors. From the mass use of antibiotics prescribed prophylactically to “protect” grouse, to huge swathes of heather being burnt off peatland each year, destructive management activities increase the number of grouse that can be shot for sport.
The act means that from this year onwards, estates will lose their licence to operate if they are believed to be at fault in failing to protect birds of prey, or breaking regulations on how the heather should be burnt or antibiotics used. All this is welcome, but the government chose to continue to allow the killing of hundreds of thousands of foxes, stoats, weasels and crows, all of which also include grouse in their diets, as a concession to the shooting estates.
The act is an important step forward in protecting our majestic birds of prey, peatland carbon sinks and the wider environment. But if hundreds of thousands of animals continue to be killed each year, so that hundreds of thousands of grouse can be shot for sport, the circle of destruction will continue. It’s often said that you can’t license cruelty. Perhaps Scotland just has.
Robbie Marsland is Director of Scotland and Northern Ireland for the League Against Cruel Sports
ENDS
Raptor Persecution UK 
‘Circle of Destruction’ is the means, ‘Landscape of Death’ is the ends.
I have had a newsletter from the Hunt Saboteurs today. This describes August 12 as the culmination of a year of killing. I suspect the new Labour government isn’t going to change anything. As they say in Scotland, they are red Tories. The future looks bleak.
https://mailchi.mp/huntsabs/12th-august-year-of-killing?e=1544b828d0
Reckless,pathetic statement from Marsland,that has no benefit to Wildlife.
LACS Robbie Marsland’s piece is necessarily short and yes, a bit sweeping. But his views cannot be swept aside in the way you have attempted. Everything that is done in the name of putting birds over Guns to be shot for sport needs to be thoughtfully and thoroughly justified, and if it cannot be justified then it needs to be stopped. While there is essentially nothing in practical terms being done by the industry as a whole (I’m excepting lots of individuals and some Estates) to deal with the biggest elephant in the room (raptor persecution) then all efforts to push the positives will ultimately still fall short of persuading people that shooting is often a good thing in land management.